Of the activities from which you can choose to burn off calories, sedentary pursuits such as watching TV and sleeping are among the least effective.
Watching TV
Harvard Medical School calculates the calories burned per activity based primarily on your weight and the amount of time spent. If you weigh 155 lbs. and spend 30 minutes watching TV, you will burn 28 calories. This works out to 56 calories per hour. If you weigh 185 lbs. you'll burn 33 calories every 30 minutes, or 66 calories an hour.
Being Sedentary
If you compare the calories you burn watching TV to sleeping or sitting reading a book, you do still burn off calories, but it's at too slow a rate to be considered an activity that will help you lose weight. If you weigh 185 lbs. you'll burn 56 calories an hour sleeping and 100 calories an hour sitting and reading a book.
Risks
The American Heart Association notes that obesity, caused by poor diet or lack of physical activity, is now a global epidemic. Obesity is linked with poor health and "on the whole, overweight and obesity predispose to or are associated with numerous cardiac complications such as coronary heart disease, heart failure and sudden death because of their impact on the cardiovascular system."
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